Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi guys,

Well I have made a little progress on the Quasi Tele and should be able to deliver it next week. I thought I would pull the in process pics to include with these two shots showing finish. The finish is sprayed with no wet sand or polish yet. It is a new auto 2k from Germany. It has been a learning process, but this stuff shows great promise even for those that want a thin finish.











The finish goes on with tons of orange peel, but flow like glass, and so far, with no sagging. For those that don't like a urethane finish.....this just might change your mind. If (I failed to do so... ) you fill the grain, the finish can very likely be applied with one dry, 5 min wait, then a wet coat. I sanded through with 1000 grit on another project and was shocked at how thin the finish was.

Let me know what you think?

Mike

Looks nice, what is that top wood?

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John Thiessen
http://www.iszacguitars.com

I want a cnc machine.

Lookin' good! The top wood looks like walnut to me, but whatever it is, it's beautiful!

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

i love that walnut man, looks nice.

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~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

Sorry for the delay in answering, but I had something much more important! Spending time with my wife. Some of you might remember me mentioning the fact she has been battling cancer. The oncologist told us yesterday (Thur) that it was time to call in hospice! Needless to say, that changes your priorities more than they were already changed with the word cancer.

Anyway, that is the reason this guitar took so long. Well that, and the fact we have had sub freezing temps, snow and generally bad weather here for nearly a month, then yesterday and today we have had 70's! I love these kind of days.

The top wood is American black walnut with crotch figure, no stain or dyes. The body is southern Wild Black Cherry and is one of my very favorite woods to work.

CNC is the only tool I really have, and I promise you there are still mistakes galore in this guitar, though none from cnc. The large black dot in the bridge area is a plug......broke a screw off and had to plug cut it out. The neck should have had a plate on it, but I seemed to be prone to getting into a hurry to see what things are going to look like, and forgot to check my references before deciding to route the back with a larger radius bit than the front, then proceeded to route all the way around...including the neck!

Thanks for the compliments, and I will show some finished shots sometime this week.


Mike

Mike, i'm sorry to hear about your wife. She has been in my prayers off and on since I read a post about her battling with cancer a long while back on the MIMF. Will redouble my efforts.
About the cherry back. I've been contemplating building a guitar completely from cherry. What's the weight like? The local hardwood supplier here has it in abundance. That's something for me to think on a little more. I've got a build already in progress that will take up most of this year. Maybe next year.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Mike, thank you from the bottom of my heart. We have not given up hope and will not until there is no need for hope.

I can only speak from my own experience with cherry, but the wood I have here is from a local man that cut the wood over 25yrs ago. I bought 2500 bt ft of walnut, and 1500 bd ft of cherry from the same guy, and later found out quite a bit of it was junk. Rookie mistake! I have no ill feelings toward this gentleman though, since he sold it to me so cheap!

Now to the wood. I have found with the lumber I have here, that the cherry is at least 25% lighter in weight than the walnut but I have no idea if this holds true across the nation from different ares and suppliers. The reason I know the weights so well is that at one time I made competition rifle stocks designed for rifles that had to be shot from bench rests, and the total weight of the rifle including scope could only weigh 7.5 lbs. I have made many cherry stocks that would weigh in the 26-28 oz range, but the lightest I could get the walnut was 32oz, and that was a rare one. Most of the walnut stocks went 34-36oz.

I have another guitar planned that will be a cherry body, mesquite carved top and cherry neck. I have a spectular (to me ) piece of 1 5/8" quarter sawn cherry with a broken bees wing figure. I intend to do this guitar with an oil finish, all trimmed in black. The body shape will be this design, only with a carve top.

Mike

She's coming along nicely, Mike!
Sorry about your wife...

That mesquite build sounds delicious! Thanks for the comments on the the weight. That kind of gives me an idea.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Sorry to hear about your wife. I just went through losing a loved one to cancer. I hope your wife pulls through, like you said, there is no need to give up hope until there is no hope.
If I might be so bold as to suggest, have you tried putting her on a no sugar diet?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/art ... -life.html

Chris the mesquite top one will be done with the same outside profile as this Quasi Tele. I have it modeled, well.....I had some help from Pascal at Rhino, and may have to post it here to get it refined. Anyway, I have it modeled so a top of only .650" thick can be used for a carve top. I also have a three piece ribbon stripe sapele (??) that I am going to do as a carve top using a mahogney body. I will likely do a cherry neck on that one as well but am considering a highly figured shedua fingerboard! The thing glows a golden brown when it is wet a little.

Thank all of you for your kind words.
Jimmy, I remember your post about your father in law, I think. Sorry to hear of your loss too. We have not tried the no sugar diet, but have a friend who is doing it now. My wife is a unique case in that she is a 15 yr kidney transplant survivor. The problem is, the drugs she was on for so long to help her keep her kidney, are known to cause cancer after long time use.

Mike

Well, a little more progress. Forgive the horrible photography as it is the best I can do at the moment!

Assembled for mock up but still have to solder the wiring, make the headstock decal or artwork, it may actually be cut and inlaid instead as it might be easier for me to do that than make the decal! This young man only plays in church and wanted a three cross headstock design which I have, and am pretty satisfied with, but do not have access to a quality laser printer. I could cut stencils and airbrush as well, but will decide that tomorrow or Friday.







The neck was a take off as well as all the hardware. I needed the extra time rather than make a neck, fret etc. I thought the curly maple neck was kinda nice.

Mike

Heh Mike,

Very nice looking top on that guitar!.

This is the first I've looked in on this thread, and I have to say that I'm impressed and amazed at your perseverance in the face of what you're going through. My wife was diagnosed with a triple negative breast tumor a few weeks ago, and she will be in surgery on Monday, with 4-6 months of chemo to follow. The emotional rollercoaster has brought shop work to a complete halt, and between tending to her and tending to work, I can't imagine getting back there yet. I feel for you.

Turning back to the (what seems to me trivial at this point) - I'm sorry, your guitar just ain't curvy enough. I always think of Tele's as one of the most feminine of forms for some reason. Yours needs less waist, or something.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Hi Jim,

My wife has been battling this for almost three years now. The oncologis told us two weeks ago there was nothing else he could do. We make it only by the grace of God, prayers and support of our family friends and church. My wife's sister has come to stay a couple of weeks and this gives me a little more time. The family who's son I am doing this guitar for are also friends and have been very kind through all this giving me all the time I need to finish. With my sister in law here, I should be able to finish in the next couple of days.

Keep positive, and do anything necessary to support and encourage your wife.

Now to the trivial ........ based on your thoughts on the body shape of the guitar, I succeeded!
In my inital design, I wanted to have a guitar based on the Tele parts, but not look like a Tele! Besides, all women do not have those perfect dimensions, and they all still need love!

Mike

Hello folks,

I just wanted to post and let you know that my wife is not battling cancer any longer. She passed from pain to joy at 3:30pm c/t on Wed 23rd of Feb.

A sincere thank you to all who prayed for her.

Mike

I am sorry to hear that, my thoughts are with you in your time of loss.

My prayers for you Mike and your family in this time of loss.

Mike

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I'm outside looking in, just farther from the window than most.

My condolences. I am sorry to hear this. 1Thess. 4:13,14 come to mind. You and yours will continue to be in my prayers.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Mike, I'm sorry.
That hurts.
Alan

All the best to you and yours.


Todd

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Todd Lunneborg
http://www.tlguitars.com/
http://www.fretboardjournal.com/

I'm really sorry for your loss Mike.

My condolences.

Ben

Thanks to all of you for your kind words. Believe me or not, it does help. It really is such a small world. When my wife first got cancer I watched JoJo's build of that beautiful burl top and was inspired to try my hand at building a guitar.

I ask his permission to borrow the design and he graciously sent me the url for the pdf of the design. I entered the mimf contest but could not finish the guitar on time due to my wife's condition worsening.

She battled like a warrior and I am so proud to have had the privelege of being her husband. Now, I get solice in knowing that there are people as far away as France thinking of me in my time of grief. It is indeed a small world.

By the grace of God, I will be back building shortly. I have a commissioned Quasi-Explorer to do with a high grade Bastogne walnut top, single emg pup and Floyd Rose hardware. I will post a thread when I start it. Since I have only built two, I intend to build at least two more before I start this one, and one of them will be a test Explorer with paint to make sure I have all the bugs killed before I start the high grade version.

The other build, is likely going to be a painted Tele based on an orange pickguard....... . Platinum pearl with orange and black cobweb, or a straight Lamborgini Pearl Orange.

Mike